Creator Donald P. Bellisario first explored the concept of an ace combat pilot in a third-season Magnum, P.I. episode called 'Two Birds of a Feather' (1983), which was intended as a backdoor pilot but was not picked up as a series.

The Magnum, P.I. episode idea was itself inspired by two earlier episodes of Bellisario's Tales of the Gold Monkey ('Legends Are Forever' and 'Honor Thy Brother', 1982), which featured a similar character played by William Lucking.

The remote 'Valley of the Gods' lair featured in the show was actually filmed in the visually similar Monument Valley, Utah.

For the drastically reduced-budget fourth season, production moved to Vancouver, Canada, with a budget less than one-third of the original CBS budget, and the crew no longer had access to the original Airwolf helicopter, forcing all in-flight shots to be recycled from earlier seasons.

In the fourth season, Ernest Borgnine's character Dominic Santini was written out and killed off, represented only by a body double seen from behind before his death, and Jan-Michael Vincent appeared only in a brief transitional first episode.

Actress Michele Scarabelli, who played Jo Santini in season four, said in a Starlog interview that all 24 scripts were already written before the cast arrived, leaving the actors little room to develop their characters.

Series star Jan-Michael Vincent's struggles with alcoholism reportedly contributed to production problems on the show.

The flight-capable Airwolf was a cosmetically modified Bell 222 helicopter; a non-flying mock-up (built from the very first Bell 222 ever made) was used to design and test the modifications before molds were made for FAA-approved parts added to the flying aircraft.

The helicopter's visible machine guns were actually mock-ups using spark plugs and fuel to simulate gunfire, while other weapon effects like the retractable rocket launcher were achieved through close-up shots of separate props rather than on the actual flying aircraft.

After the show ended, the real Airwolf helicopter was stripped of its modifications, sold to a German air ambulance company, and later crashed into a mountain in fog on June 6, 1992, killing all three occupants aboard.

The show's theme and much of the early music was composed by Sylvester Levay, with later episodes scored by Udi Harpaz, Ian Freebairn-Smith and Bernardo Segáll.

Airwolf premiered on CBS as the lead-out program following Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984.